Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an alarm system and particularly relates to an alarming method for a ventilator and a ventilator alarm system.
Description of Related Art
A ventilator is a mechanical device used in place of a pump function of a human respiratory organ, mainly for ventilation and oxygenation of a patient who has respiratory failure and for reducing work of breathing, so as to maintain appropriate carbon dioxide and oxygen content in the blood for the patient to breathe easily. While providing the patient a respiratory treatment, the current ventilator also detects and displays various parameters of the patient's respiratory status (referred to as “ventilation parameters” hereinafter). Thus, when the patient has a breathing problem, the problem can be shown by the ventilation parameters for the medical staff to react immediately.
The breathing problem is usually very urgent and may very likely cause great harm to the patient if the problem is not dealt with properly within minutes. However, due to the limited number of the medical staff, it is impossible for the medical staff to observe each patient's ventilation parameters all day. In addition, when abnormal ventilation parameters occur, simply adjusting the operational setting of the ventilator is usually not enough, and from time to time the medical staff are required to provide first aid or various treatments according to the conditions. Although the current ventilator may be connected to an alarm system for notifying the medical staff, the poor design of the alarm signals of the current alarm system only provides single-parameter alarms and often activates false positive alarms, and thus cannot convey clear information for the medical staff to make decisions immediately. For example, in an ICU alarm investigation, the proportion of incorrect and false positive alarms is extremely high. Among 1455 alarms, only 8 correctly show the potential threats to the patients' lives.
In view of the above, how to establish an accurate and efficient alarm system has become an important issue in this field of medical care.